The Study of Internet Use, Motivation, Living Adaptation, Learning Adaptation, and Social Adjustment for College Students: A Longitudinal Approach

The time spent on the internet for nonacademic purposes was more than twice that for academic purposes. The fit of the model hypothesizing zero covariance between growth rate and initial status was satisfactory, indicating that where one starts as a freshman does not affect whether the student increases or decreases the internet use.

Furthermore, as the relationship of two initial assessments and that of slopes were not statistically significant in the multivariate latent growth model, academic and non-academic uses did not change together. Future research should differentiate between various internet uses to generate useful internet use data. A psychometrically sound instrument that can identify various uses is warranted.